No one likes a pirate: Omniverse is accused of recruiting TV pirates

Film and TV Studios (‘Film Studios’) (a major entertainment company) has taken the bold step of bringing a legal suit against Omniverse One World Television (‘Omniverse’) (a company that offers a streaming service claiming to partner with key distributors across the US to enable its customers to access to view their favourite television channels) and its owner Jason DeMeo.

Film Studios allege that Omniverse has been offering illegal services that continues to grow, undermining the legitimate market and its integrity for licensed services. Film Studios have accused Omniverse of “recruiting” the services of pirates into the illegal market. As a result, Omniverse is operating “at a higher level in the supply chain of infringing content”[1]. Furthermore, as many of the alleged pirate service providers display a “[p]owered by Omniverse” graphic on their sites, it seems that Omniverse is in the mix of it.

It seems that others shared the same views as Film Studios such as Paramount Pictures, Columbia, Disney, Twentieth Century Fox and Universal. These companies filed a lawsuit against Omniverse in the US District Court for the Central District Court of California.

The Alliance for Creativity of Entertainment (‘ACE’) issues a statement in support of the above companies. Richard VanOrnum (spokesperson for ACE), said that “Omniverse’s illegal services, and the downstream ‘Powered by Omniverse’ entities, undermine the legitimate market for legal and licensed services, a harm that has grown as Omniverse has expanded. This action is part of a long-term effort to protect the thriving legal marketplace for creative content, which now offers 140 legal online services for film and TV content in the United States, and more than 460 around the world”. [2]

However, Omniverse decided to issue a statement confirming its support of the ACE and its mission in ensuring the legitimacy of the market for legal and licensed services. Omniverse stated that it was not in support of media pirates in the industry and that its business had also suffered from the acts of media pirates (through “the unlicensed distribution of media content”[3]).  In addition, Omniverse stated that is not only committed to assisting the ACE to protect creator’s copyright, but it would also help to engage with the legal counsel of the above-mentioned companies.